Concerning Olive Oil usage at home and in the Church

&lt;&lt;Would anyone care to comment on which oil they find highest
quality but most cost efficient for use in the lampada? We find the best one is
Bertoli Virgin Olive Oil, sold in 5-liter bottles in Costco and Sam's
Club.

We also use Bertolli from Sam's at $19 for 5 liters It burns fairly cleanly
unlike some much more expensive extra virgin oils. It is dual purpose for us too
as extra virgin oils are just too strong tasting for the kids. Bertolli is a mild
tasting oil and since the turnover at Sam's is so large it is always fresh as
well.

Fresh _may_ not be best for burning however. There seems to be some anecdotal
evidence that older oil burns better than newer of the same batch. But new
Bertolli has never been a problem, and the shreds of evidence along these lines
(I have gathered personally) come from pomace oils, so maybe it is just the
residue falling out over time that improves them.

&lt;&lt;A much less expensive type of olive oil is Pomace Oil, made
from a mixture of oil pressed from the fruit and that pressed from the ground
olive pits. It burns well, but leaves more of a residue in the glass.

This is highly variable. Some brands such as Hermes burned clean most of the
time, but some lots would build up carbon on the wick so badly that a lamp would
burn (poorly) only 2-3 hours at a time without trimming (appropriate burning time
is 6-8 hours minimum). In a college town in Indiana there were a half dozen
competing stores that sold olive oils and these pomace oils could be real
bargains, but here in the homogenized white milk center of evangelical
protestantism, such staples are considered ethnic and a premium is attached to
the price due to extremely slow turnover. A quart is also considered to be a
large amount among those who don't burn it, so large cans are more rare.

The cost of the oil should not be too big of a concern. We buy the best we can
reasonably afford (and last fall/winter after the crop failure when Bertolli was
up to $29 - we couldn't afford to continuously burn multiple lamps).

We are instructed to bring the best offering and this is how we should
consider the burning of a Vigil lamp. It is for this

reason that we only use olive oil just as we only use 100% beeswax candles.
Some consider this instruction to be of no significance. Aside from fidelity to
Church Tradition (dating back at least as far as to our father the God-Seer
Moses), the reasons for burning olive oil, as Fr David Cownie says in his book "A
Guide to Orthodox Life", are related to the idea of sacrifice. Vigilance is a
personal sacrifice - an offering to God wherein we try to remain sober-minded and
come eventually to an awareness of the concepts of deep repentance and humility
found in the prayers and lives of the saints. It is a voluntary putting aside of
mundane and petty concerns about personal choices and inconvenience of the
Orthodox lifestyle.

Of course there is also a problem we have noticed lately with the widespread
lack of understanding of the meaning of vigil - perhaps because so few actually
observe it liturgically, let alone in their private _social_ lives. Saturday
night after Vigil, (if not every day as we are reminded by our own offering of a
well-trimmed continuously burning vigil lamp in our homes) is not a time for
going out to eat in some raucous restaurant. Our bishop instructs us to go home
and eat "a little" (if we need to) after the Vigil, but otherwise to continue
preparation for Communion by reading the Prayers and canons for preparation, and
other edifying fare prior to retiring and, of course, making sure to light the
Vigil lamp on this evening if on none other.

Fr Michael Henning in "Marriage and the Christian Home" says "traditional oil
lamps require an amount of attention...directing our physical services and
thoughts to God several times a day when we are required to trim the wick..."
Some few will suggest that a cheaper oil, even mineral oil which requires no
trimming (in fact trimming at all causes it to perform more poorly), is
appropriate and acceptable. It is not! (imo) Fr Michael continues regarding this
sort of practice: "God is beneficent to those who think first of spiritual
matters and then of themselves." How does one follow the pious practice of
anointing oneself with the oil from the vigil lamp when it is not the oil of
sacrifice, the oil of mercy (eleos/elaias) but a form of burning pitch (albeit
refined). Pious constant diligence will not go unrewarded.

Use the best you can afford. "A family with which I am familiar had a
multitude of problems, one of which was not enough money to purchase food. The
head of the family placed the household under the protection of the Theotokos and
Ever-Virgin Mary. As an offering of faith and love, the family's head promised
that the lamp in the icon corner would burn only pure olive oil and that it would
be allowed to go out only after there was no more food on the table and no money
to buy either olive oil or food. Because of the strong faith shown by the family
head, the Theotokos has miraculously provided the family with enough money to
purchase both olive oil and food for months on end."

The point is the same in what Fr David Cownie has to say: "men and women are
no longer being encouraged to bring their best before God, but rather are led to
believe that they are [even!] doing God a service by sauntering up to the
Chalice." "They have at times been openly encouraged by their modernist hierarchs
[and even where this is not the case by a distorted spiritless common opinion]
and by self-styled 'experts' to look upon receiving the Mysteries as a privilege
or even a right... lulled into carelessness by glib statements about how Christ
loves us and how we are all sinners before God (both of course true, but neither
has any application to the reception of Holy Communion.)" > >Mixing oils
does not work well, and if string is used for the wick, it >should not be
polished string.

Good string is hard to come by - or maybe I simply haven't figured out where
to buy. Mother Anna in St Louis has a roll of triple ply long fibre v. soft
cotton thread that is ideal. It is usually recommended that you soak new thread
in vinegar to wash out impurities, but this pure white string works fine as is.
One ply fits perfectly into the common Athonite float. (If you buy your beeswax
candles from her, ask for some string next time you order).

Good strong heat proof glasses are indispensable. Mt Sinai Church Suppliers in
Cedar Rapids carries these (and also sells beeswax candles for a very inexpensive
price). We still primarily use an old quilted glass (with red trim/rim) wine
glass that came from someone at Holy Transfiguration Monastery. It holds enough
oil to safely burn for several days unattended (a practice we came to follow
every time we went to Church on our week-end commutes for the last decade or so).
It is the experience with this lamp that taught me many things about myself. No
matter what quality of oil etc., if I am back- sliding the lamp will not stay lit
for more than a couple of hours. Under the same physical conditions however it
would burn for up to 4 days over a long festal week-end if I were attending to
"the one thing needful." I'm sure the insurance man would have not been pleased
if he knew that we trust an open flame for four days absence! (and no, I didn't
use water in the bottom, since the splattering of fuming hot - even flaming drops
- when the lamp burns dry and the water boils is extremely dangerous. (This
boiling of water does not happen in a smaller glass and _is_ highly recommended
in such a case).